The Hindu : Dharam Sansad unlikely to announce date for temple construction

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 20, 2003

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Dharam Sansad unlikely to announce date for temple construction

By Our Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD FEB. 19. The Ramjanmabhoomi Nyas president, Ramchandradas Paramhans, today hinted that the country could face "difficult days" if the Dharam Sansad was "compelled" to take any "strong decision" on the construction of the Ram temple.

Even while stressing that he was opposed to any kind of violence, he hinted that the Dharam Sansad meeting in Delhi from February 22 was unlikely to announce any firm date for the construction of the temple to "keep an element of surprise" in its programme. But he made it clear that the construction of the temple would be "completed" in the next 15 months "under any circumstances".

Reiterating the Nyas' stand that it would abide by the court verdict "unless it is against the religious sentiments of the Hindus", he wondered why the Supreme Court was reluctant to give an early decision on the issue when "everyone including the court judges" knows that it was the "true birthplace" of Lord Rama and the Hindus claim on the land was "entirely justified".

He said he would have agreed to move away from the claim for the land for the construction of the temple if the revenue records showed any other land to be the actual birthplace of Lord Rama. He said while the mosques or temples could be shifted — and there were examples of mosques being shifted in Dubai, Kolkata and other places — the birth place of Lord Rama and "for that matter Lord Krishna and the Vishwanath temple in Kashi" could not be shifted.

Attacking the BJP-led Government at the Centre, the Nyas president said the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, was "capable" of solving any stalemate "if he really wanted to" and wondered why he was not taking the kind of initiative required to solve the dispute over the Ram temple which "actually is very simple as the Muslims have no stake on the land". He welcomed the appointment of the four-member Cabinet committee to solve the temple dispute.

Reacting to the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi's statement that she was not opposed to the construction of the temple, he wondered how she could oppose a "justified demand" particularly when the land now under dispute was actually acquired and handed over to the Nyas by her late husband, Rajiv Gandhi, when he was the Prime Minister, and the Uttar Pradesh Government was under the Congress rule.

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